Updated: Indian government blocks image sharing site Imgur

Update: The Vodafone representative informs us that the order was for blocking one imgur URL, and the company blocked the entire domain by mistake. That has now been corrected, and only one URL has been blocked. The representative did not respond to a query requesting information on which URL has been blocked.

Earlier today: The Indian government has asked telecom operators and ISPs to block the image sharing site imgur. A Vodafone representative, responding to a query from MediaNama about Imgur not being accessible via Vodafone connections, said that “It has been blocked as per DoT instructions.” DoT is the Department of Telecommunications, which issues blocking instructions to telecom operators and ISPs. We were alerted to this issue via Twitter, and pointed towards a Reddit thread which indicates that some users via Hathway, an ISP. Users on the group also suggest workarounds: imgur can be accessed by replacing ‘imgur’ in the link with filmot. There’s a chrome extension, here, which does this automatically.

Necessary requirements for blocking

Ideally, blocking should be an exception, and not the norm that it has become. Even if blocks are instituted, here’s how it should be done.

Visitors to a blocked website should be informed about:

1. The fact that the website has been blocked: There should be a notice indicating that the website has been blocked. This till ensure that visitors don’t assume that there is a problem with their Internet connection (ISP), with the websites servers or the DNS.

2. Who has asked for the site to be blocked: This ensures that the identity of someone who has asked for a block is public. This ensures accountability and prevents frivolous complaints, since the individual or company filing the complaint will do so in a responsible manner.

3. Who has issued an order for the site to be blocked: This ensures that the adjudicatory body, whether the Department of Telecom or a court is identified as the entity that has issued the order for blocking. This ensures transparency and enforces accountability.

4. Why the website has been blocked: If my access to a page has been blocked, don’t I deserve to know why? Orders should be public, so that the department, person or a court is forced to explain why something has been blocked. Freedom of expression isn’t just the right to express yourself, but also the right to receive that expression.

5. How a block can be removed: There should be recourse established. If a page has been blocked, as the owner of the site, I should have details of whom to contact, and the process for blocks being removed. At present, that is not the case, and sites like Mobango were blocked in India for months, without knowing why or what they could to do to get blocks removed.

6. A link with a public listing of blocks: This will allow an individual to ensure that the block is legitimate, if the government maintains a public listing of blocking orders. This ensures that telecom operators don’t block pages on their own, without orders from the government or courts. Remember this?

These measures will at least ensure complete transparency. Right now, there is opacity, and this allows CERT-IN and DoT to block whatever they want, without being accountable for it. DoT hasn’t even acknowledged an RTI we filed, for information on blocks that have been done for reasons other than national security. An appeal we subsequently filed has also not been acknowledged.

*

To end with, here’s a screenshot of an Imgur page hosting a screenshot of Github being blocked. We’re still trying to confirm this one.

7 Comments

The Indian Government led by Modi has recently become very strict due to ISIS increasing activities in India, I think they are making all of us separtae from ISIS which is good....by blocking all the websites which contain malicious content...

Weebly - a website builder site has been blocked recently by DOT and many smes depending on Weebly have been effected. This article makes complete sense. Weebly does not elaborate on why its site is blocked except for playing a broken record "DOT has blocked Weebly". I don't feel like we live in a democracy anymore.

After years of this bullshit, I am convinced that the brainstorming sessions of Indian Cabinet consist of googling the worst possible administrative trends from across the world and speedily implementing it. Comcast may be terrible but it's terrible in a state where you can drink tap water, say whatever the hell you want and have infrastructure among with other basic amenities that for the majority of Indians, is a dreamscape-esque luxury. If India wants to be imitate Cameron's Britain in-terms of censorship and out-do China in-terms of repressing its inhabitants, might I suggest they also imitate their infrastructure and ways of operating? Oh right, that takes too much of an effort.

At this point, given India's egregious moral policing and censorship, people might as well shell out for a VPN subscription. TRAI is as impotent as it gets and I would be incredulous if LS passes a bill to the effect of regulating (In a good way!) the Internet to keep it free and accessible. In a country like India where mass-ignorance is seemingly mixed in the air, a high-speed Internet infrastructure operating without arbitrary censorship would be a boon. But then again, India doesn't elect leaders as much as it puts into place, a shepherd to direct the sheep traffic; though sheeps stray unless properly confined and monitored (CMS, Netra et al).